Fifty-One Tales by Lord Dunsany 1915

A Moral Little Tale

There was once an earnest Puritan who held it wrong to

dance.  And for his principles he labored hard, his was a

zealous life.  And there loved him all of those who hated

the dance; and those that loved the dance respected him too;

they said "He is a pure, good man and acts according to his

lights."

   He did much to discourage dancing and helped to close

several Sunday entertainments.  Some kinds of poetry, he

said, he liked, but not the fanciful kind as that might

corrupt the thoughts of the very young.  He always dressed

in black.

   He was quite interested in morality and was quite sincere

and there grew to be much respect on Earth for his honest

face and his flowing pure-white beard.

   One night the Devil appeared unto him in a dream and said

"Well done."

   "Avaunt," said that earnest man.

   "No, no, friend," said the Devil.

   "Dare not to call me `friend,'" he answered bravely.

   "Come, come, friend," said the Devil.  "Have you not put

apart the couples that would dance?  Have you not checked

their laughter and their accursed mirth?  Have you not worn

my livery of black?  O friend, friend, you do not know what

a detestable thing it is to sit in hell and hear people

being happy, and singing in theatres and singing in the

fields, and whispering after dances under the moon," and he

fell to cursing fearfully.

   "It is you," said the Puritan, "that put into their

hearts the evil desire to dance; and black is God's own

livery, not yours."

   And the Devil laughed contemptuously and spoke.

   "He only made the silly colors," he said, "and useless

dawns on hill-slopes facing South, and butterflies flapping

along them as soon as the sun rose high, and foolish maidens

coming out to dance, and the warm mad West wind, and worst

of all that pernicious influence Love."

   And when the Devil said that God made Love that earnest

man sat up in bed and shouted "Blasphemy!  Blasphemy!"

   "It's true," said the Devil.  "It isn't I that send the

village fools muttering and whispering two by two in the

woods when the harvest moon is high, it's as much as I can

bear even to see them dancing."

   "Then," said the man, "I have mistaken right for wrong;

but as soon as I wake I will fight you yet."

   "O, no you don't," said the Devil.  "You don't wake up

out of this sleep."

   And somewhere far away Hell's black steel doors were

opened, and arm in arm those two were drawn within, and the

doors shut behind them and still they went arm in arm,

trudging further and further into the deeps of Hell, and it

was that Puritan's punishment to know that those that he

cared for on Earth would do evil as he had done.